Thursday, October 7, 2010

Is this supposed to be funny?

Pretty typical party-line election season stuff for the most part. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

But then I got to page three of the Target and read this “joke”:

Texas Sheriff ’s Exam

A man in Texas looking to join the Frio County Sheriffs Dept. was being interviewed.

The Sergeant doing the interview says, "Your qualifications look good, but there's an attitude suitability test you must pass before you can be ac-cepted."

Then, sliding a Smith and Wesson 45 pistol across the desk, he says to the man, "Take this pistol; go out and shoot six illegal aliens, six meth dealers, six Muslim extremists, six 'Progressive Liberal' democrats, and a rabbit."

"Why the rabbit?" the man asked.

"That's the attitude we're looking for." said the Sergeant, "When can you start?"

Given that we’re in an election season and Republicans repeatedly attack their Democratic opponents as “out of touch liberals,” I don’t think it’s a stretch to see this “joke” as a form of intimidation.

Might a “progressive liberal Democrat” be intimidated out of exercising her first amendment rights at a political forum out of fear that she might one day be a “target?”

Might a Great Falls citizen whose family migrated to the U.S. from a country south of the border read this and wonder about the safety of his family?

Who knows?

But I think it’s sad that in this day and age there are people out there, leaders of a political parties no less, who find humor in the dehumanization of people they don’t like. What happened to working together to forge a brighter future for our nation?

The question is what are people going to do about this sort of behavior. As long as Republicans in general tolerate it, it will continue. Publicize the content of the newsletter and allow other members of the public to offer disapproval. Until there are ramifications then no-one will apologize.

When I aske my attorney brother what the difference between a dead skunk in the road, and a dead lawyer in the road, and he tells me that there's skid marks in front of the skunk, we both laugh, because it's funny.

Should somebody hear that joke, and think we're advocating hit and run's on lawyers?

Most people would agree that this joke doesn't belong in a newsletter. Printing this clearly displays poor judgment. But this blog posting is quite self righteous. The joke is funny because it is absurd, playing off a trumped up stereotype of Texas lawmen.

Not much different than the jokes that we have all heard that start with: "Clinton, Bush and Pelosi are riding in an airplane" In this case I doubt the jokester is actually advocating for the death of our nation's leaders.

The unfortunate part of the GOP printing this type of joke is that they are limiting the appeal of party principles(smaller government, better business climate)due to the noise generated by something that is entirely unrelated to why they (we) exist.

Just to be clear: Poor judgment? Certainly. Voter intimidation? Be real.

Jokes are not equal. Demise by stupidity or accident are funny and the premises have a long history. Hate disguised as humor is obvious. Jokes that invoke killing people with firearms incite. Adams is right on. Words have power and this is why we are commenting. Responsibility is clearly trumped by an aw shucks posture.

So now we're going to limit the freedom of someone to tell or publish a joke? Maybe it lacks couth but the implication that it would incite violence is absurd - so is the implication that liberals dont do the same exact thing. Jeez - Its becoming an impossible climate when the pot doesnt even know its a pot while it calls the kettle black.

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